Recipe

This is just the thing to set children up for a night of marauding through the chilly streets trick-or-treating, or to warm them up once they get home. I know the title sounds disgusting – it’s meant to – but the soup itself, as any pea and cheese soup would be, is addictively wonderful and, as you can see, ludicrously easy to make.

Yield: Serves 4-6 children

Ingredients

4 cups or 2 x 10oz packages frozen peas

1 scallion

Chicken or vegetable stock concentrate to taste or a stock cube

3 cups boiling water from the kettle

1 ball mozzarella

Directions

Cook the frozen peas and scallion in the boiling water with the stock concentrate or stock cube until tender and cooked through. Remove and discard the scallion once the peas are soft enough to be blitzed into soup.

Chop up the mozzarella roughly and put it into the blender – or a processor, but soup is always more velvety when processed in a blender – with the peas and their liquid. I do this in about three batches, pouring the vilely green and – it’s true – slightly slimy soup back into the pan and heating gently to meld cheese and peas better together. Otherwise just set aside and reheat later.

Notes

Makes 4 cups, which is probably enough for four to six children, depending on how much sugar they’ve eaten.